Records topple as Britain shivers in the snow

?The past month was Britain's coldest December for 120 years, meteorologists have revealed.

It was also the chilliest individual calendar month since February 1986, according to weather historian Philip Eden, with temperatures dropping as low as minus 21.1C (minus 6F) in the Scottish Highlands.

A series of heavy snowfalls caused massive disruption to road, rail and air travel as the nation shivered in freezing conditions.

The benchmark Central England Temperature plunged to an average of minus 0.6C (31F) over the month, the lowest figure for December since 1890, according to MeteoGroup UK, the weather forecasting division of the Press Association.

There were 10 nights in December 2010 when the temperature fell below minus 18C (minus 0.4F) somewhere in the UK.

Altnaharra in Scotland experienced the coldest conditions, with the mercury plummeting to minus 21.1C on December 1.

By contrast, St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly basked in the relative warmth of a high of 11.5C (53F) on December 28.

Much of Britain may have been freezing and snowbound in December, but it was drier and sunnier than usual.

Rainfall averaged 39.5mm over England and Wales (39 per cent of the mean for 1971-2000), the lowest total for December since 1971, 48mm over Scotland (47 per cent) and 59mm over Northern Ireland (60 per cent).

Northern Ireland enjoyed 80 hours of sunshine over the month (227 per cent of the mean for 1971-2000), Scotland 59 hours (178 per cent) and England and Wales averaged 56 hours (117 per cent).